PIPCU diverts 10m pirate website

By Colin Mann

April 24, 2015

The UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has marked World Intellectual Property (IP) Day 2015, taking place April 26th by announcing it has diverted more than 10.3 million illegal music and film sites to an official police warning page since July last year.

Since the unit launched in September 2013, the team has been tackling copyright infringing sites in the UK and across the world to help protect the creative industries, including film and music.

Many of the illegal websites targeted by the unit are then diverted to a PIPCU domain suspension page. This is an official message from the City of London Police warning the user that the website they are trying to access is currently under investigation by PIPCU, the only specialist police unit in the world dedicated to tackling online intellectual property crime.

The page also includes signposts to safe and reliable websites that provide legitimate access to music, films and books, as well as a link to the PIPCU website so users can find out more information about the unit.
The campaign theme for World IP Day this year is; ‘Get up, Stand Up. For Music’, a theme that runs closely to the unit’s work as it is partnered with several music industry bodies including BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and PRS for Music.

Detective Chief Inspector Danny Medlycott, Head of PIPCU, said the OK’s creative industries produce some of the world’s best music, films and TV, “however criminals are taking advantage of our talent and exploiting their intellectual property for their own financial gain. PIPCU’s unique work to disrupt illegal sites hosting copyrighted content protects tens of thousands of jobs in an industry which is vital to the UK’s economy.”

PIPCU is a specialist national police unit dedicated to protecting the UK industries that produce legitimate, high quality, physical goods and online and digital content from intellectual property crime.

The operationally independent unit was launched with funding from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and is based within the Economic Crime Directorate of the City of London Police, the National Policing Lead for Fraud.